WASHINGTON -- Brenda Codallos was 4 when she came to the U.S. from Mexico. Now she may be sent back to a country she doesn't know.

President Donald Trump revoked protections for Codallos and around 690,000 other unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. The president and congressional leaders are trying to draft legislation that would allow them to stay in advance of Trump's March 5 deadline for phasing out the program.

"I was born in Mexico but my whole life is America," said Codallos, 20, of Red Bank, a home health aide and an intern in an immigration lawyer's office.

Codallos was one of 120 immigrants from 20 states brought to Capitol Hill Wednesday by Fwd.us, a pro-immigration advocacy group formed by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Those from New Jersey met with Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-12th Dist., and others.

"In a democracy, you have to talk to your policymakers," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee. "It's unfair to young people like these not to be able to carry out their dream. The threat of deportation, of someone knocking at their door, is something we shouldn't have."

The immigrants are known as "dreamers" after the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act that would have allowed those brought to the U.S. as children to remain in the country legally if they attended college or joined the military. Senate Republicans blocked that legislation.

President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals allowed those brought to the U.S. before age 16 and who arrived before June 15, 2007, to obtain permits allowing them to remain in the country and get driver's licenses, serve in the military, attend college or find work. The permits had to be renewed every two years.

Trump announced in September that he would end the program in May. That affects 17,400 dreamers who live in New Jersey as of Sept. 4, 2017, ninth highest among the 50 states, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Since Trump's original announcement, thousands of unauthorized immigrants were given permission to remain permanently while others left the country.

"I always thought that with time and hard work, I would be able to earn permanent residency and citizenship," said Daniella Vieira of Somerset, a financial analyst who emigrated to the U.S. from Brazil at 11 years old.

Brazil, she said, is "my birth country. This is my home country."

The dreamers' visits were timed to put the pressure on Congress and the White House to agree to a solution by Jan. 19, when lawmakers must pass legislation to keep funding the federal government.

"It's very hard for us to be used as bargaining chips," said Renata Mauriz, 24, of Roxbury, a senior at Brown University and a member of the Morristown-based immigrant resource center Wind of the Spirit. She came to the U.S. at age 12 from Brazil.

"No one wants to leave home," she said. "They migrate out of necessity."

U.S. voters strongly support allowing the dreamers to stay. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday said 79 percent believed they should be allowed to become citizens and another 7 percent supported allowing them to remain in the U.S. but not receive citizenship. Only 11 percent wanted them deported.

Congressional Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass a spending bill, say any agreement to fund the government also should include provisions allowing the dreamers to stay in the U.S.

"We have a very clear sense, a united purpose as Democrats, of finding a way forward with dreamers," said U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who joined other members of Congress at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the issue with Trump.

The American Federation of Teachers on Thursday began an ad campaign targeting 34 House Republicans, including Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist.; Tom MacArthur, R-3rd Dist.; Chris Smith, R-4th Dist.; Leonard Lance, R-7th Dist.; urging them to push House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to bring to the House floor legislation to allow the dreamers to remain in the U.S.